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Networking, business relationships, trust-based connections

Contacts that are truly worth gold

Who can help you the most?

The contacts that are truly worth gold aren’t the ones who are always nearby.

These are highly self-sufficient people.


And that’s the paradox—they’re capable of doing everything themselves…

But most of the time, they don’t do things on their own.

They delegate.

Extensively.

Sometimes it even feels like they’re exploiting others.

And they teach this to others.

(Though in reality—they’re just not getting in the way of others growing up.)

Paradox number two:

They may seem irresponsible.

They don’t take on extra.

They don’t rush to “save” others.

They don’t hustle or fuss.

But in their world, responsibility isn’t about “carrying everything”—it’s about not getting in the way.

Not getting in the way of others learning to handle things themselves.

Not becoming a crutch.

Not taking away initiative or creating dependency.

Because they’ve understood this long ago:

Worse than a bad contact is a contact that pulls you down.

The best network is when everyone can do without you —

but still chooses to be with you.

Leonid Bugaev
is an expert in business communications, a corporate trainer, speaker, and conference moderator. He is the author of the books “Mobile Marketing”, “Mobile Networking” and "People Like Me: 99 Rules for Building Connections That Actually Matter."

Follow Leonid on Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube so you don’t miss new publications. Also take a look at his business training programs on networking, B2B sales and trendwatching, as well as his books and interviews.